Gardner, bowlers condemn RCB to third straight loss

RCB's wait for their first home win of the season continued as an all-round Gujarat Giants, led by Ashleigh Gardner, condemned them to another defeat. Having kickstarted the new season with two wins, RCB failed to capitalise their home run with two losses and were badly in need of a win to break the jinx on Thursday (February 27). However, they came up with a poor performance with a bat that saw them crash to their third straight defeat.

Chasing just 126, Giants did make a watchful start. Renuka Singh found some swing early on and D Hemalatha in particular managed to find some streaky runs. Renuka's excellent spell was extended to a third over and that resulted in a reward for the home side as Hemalatha charged down and got beaten, only for Richa Ghosh to complete a stunning stumping. Renuka then bowed out in style as her fourth straight over saw her dismiss the dangerous Beth Mooney.

Gardner however, walked out with intent, creaming her first ball for a boundary. With Renuka now out of the attack, RCB needed someone else to step up in order to sustain the pressure. However, Gardner took full toll on the bowling change and welcomed Prema Rawat to the bowling attack with 4,4,4,6 to stun the bowling side. Even though Harleen Deol fell cheaply at the other end, RCB needed one more wicket at that stage given they were defending a modest total.

By the time the next wicket fell though, the job was pretty much done. The fact that Ghosh dropped an outside edge in the 13th over didn't help matters either. Phoebe Litchfield made that reprieve count by collecting a couple of boundaries immediately. Any hopes of a miracle at the death were quickly put to bed when Gardner smashed back-to-back sixes off Georgia Wareham to bring up her fifty in style. While she departed for 58, her teammates got the job done in the following over.

RCB endured a horrid powerplay after being asked to bat first. Danielle Wyatt-Hodge slammed Deandra Dottin over point for a boundary off just the second ball of the innings but was quickly trapped leg-before-wicket. The big blow came in the second over though as the in-form Ellyse Perry hit one short ball straight to square leg to gift Gardner a wicket in her first over. With Kashvee Gautam then applying the squeeze with two tight overs, the pressure got to Smriti Mandhana as she was struggling to get going. Batting on 10 off 19 balls, Mandhana fell when she tried to break free as she found the fielder at deep midwicket.

At 26/3 after the powerplay, RCB were in desperate need of a partnership to revive themselves. Raghvi Bist and Kanika Ahuja took on Priya Mishra for 18 runs in an over to give that run rate a much-needed boost. Ahuja in particular looked in good touch as she hammered her six of the innings with Bist clearing the ropes in the following over. But against the run of play, the stand was broken as Bist failed to capitalise on Gardner dropping a dolly by attempting an unnecessary single immediately after the dropped chance, only to get run out.

RCB's innings floundered real quick thereafter as Ahuja then departed in the following over. At 78/5, there was no way back for the batting side especially after Ghosh failed to make an impact at the death. The home side literally managed to find the boundary just once in the final overs to finish with 125 - a total that was never going to challenge a team that won with 21 balls to spare.

Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bengaluru125/7 in 20 overs (Kanika Ahuja 33; Tanuja Kanwar 2/16, Deandra Dottin 2/31) lost to Gujarat Giants126/4 in 16.3 overs (Ashleigh Gardner 58, Phoebe Litchfield 30*; Renuka Singh 2/24) by 6 wickets